Matric pass rate drops for South African private schools
The Independent Examination Board (IEB) has seen its pass rate decline to 98.31% for the Matric 2025 class.
As reported by News24, the 2025 matric pass for the IEB exams marked a slight decline from the 98.47% seen in 2024. The IEB primarily offers its services to private schools nationwide.
The class of 2025 attained a bachelor’s pass rate of 89.12%, compared to 89.37% in 2024. There was also a decline in the number of candidates who qualify for diploma studies, from 7.56% to 7.83%.
However, IEB CEO Confidence Dikgole said that the drop is not something to be alarmed by, as fluctuations in the pass rate are expected.
Dikgole said that as the IEB continues to grow, small fluctations in the aggregate pass rate are statistically expected and internationally observed in stable assessment systems.
A total of 17,143 pupils took the IEB exams in 2025, including both full-time and part-time candidates, compared to 16,304 in 2024.
This pales in comparison to the NSC exams administered by the government, where over 900,000 students wrote the state’s paper.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube will announce the 2025 results later today, 12 January 2026, with individual access from 13 January.
While the private school pass rate declined in 2025, there is hope that Gwarube will announce an improvement on 2024’s government pass rate of 87.3%.
Battle over public and private schools
Testing for the 2025 matric year has faced criticism after 40 pupils were involved in an examination leak affecting the English, Maths and Physical Science exams.
Two DBE officials have been identified as the source of the leak and have been suspended pending investigation. One official had a child writing the matric exams.
The leak has raised questions about the government’s ability to conduct the exam.
There are three examination authorities in South Africa: the DBE, the South African Comprehensive Assessment Institute (SACAI) and the IEB.
The VF Plus’ Dr Wynand Boshoff said that the latter two consistently manage their examinations without fraud or controversy.
He noted that the leak erodes confidence in the public education system, noting that independent education is expected to increase in the coming years.
“When cheating in exams comes to light, the department’s usual defence is the enormous scale of the examinations it oversees.”
“However, what makes this year’s breach different is that it reportedly took place at headquarters, not at some remote examination centre where ensuring control is difficult.”
Boshoff warned that if the DBE does not relinquish its monopoly on managing final examinations, parents will start looking into independent education.
However, the DBE responded by stating that the leak actually demonstrates the robustness of its quality assurance and monitoring systems, as markers identified the irregularity.
It added that the leak was confined to just 40 students, who make up a microscopic percentage of the roughly 1 million total matrics in 2025.
While independent schools typically use the IEB, the DBE noted that many independent schools still choose to write the NSC examination that it administers.
Article amended to improve clarity and fix errors related to the number of students.
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